I'll always protect you
by sarahdragneel
Summary: Lucy gets angry at Natsu for being too protective, so she decides to take a mission by herself. But, she really has no idea what she is in for. Will natsu save her yet again or just let her fall? Short NaLu story. ((My first time publishing, so i'm nervous. I apologize for any spelling mistakes!))


A little nalu story.

The celestial mage's eyes fluttered open when she felt the soft warmth on her face. The sun was shining into her room, the birds were singing their most cheerful song and for once in that whole week, it wasn't raining.

'_What a beautiful day. I'm so glad it's not raining anymore.' _The mage smiled to herself, embedding her face her pillow. Her mind had already run away, planning ahead to what she was going to wear for the day.

She giggled at the different outfit ideas passing threw her mind then let out a deep groan. '_Come to think of it, my rent is due soon.. I'll need to take a job. I'll ask Natsu when I get to the guild.' _

Just when the thought of the pink haired, fire-eating, mess making dragon slayer slipped into her head she felt a considerably warm hand land on her hip making her flinch. The mage's soft brown eyes narrowed, her nerve twitching. You would think that she was use to this, but no, every time; it irritated her more and more. She slowly she turned her body to face whoever was lying in her bed and her glare, to no one's surprise, caught onto the pink spikes and soft sleeping face of the infamous Salamander. He looked so peaceful and harmless when he was sleeping. If it was your first time seeing him, you never would have guessed that the individual sleeping in Lucy's bed, with a snot bubble getting bigger with every soft snore, was commonly known to destroy everything in his path. He was a reckless trouble-maker and as dense as a rock. But she admired him.

She was a little preoccupied with staring at him and being lost in her own thoughts about how brave he was, that she didn't realise when his eyes snapped opened and looked straight at her.

"Why the hell are you staring at me like that?"

His sleepy grumble snapped her back to reality and a soft pink tinge appeared on her cheeks.

"I-I wasn't staring, idiot." Her eyes darted around the room, trying not to look at him.

She caught him raise an eyebrow, then shrug. Proceeding to go back to sleep, he muttered under his breath. "You're so weird, Luce." The blonde couldn't help blushing when he said that, she loved it when he called her 'Luce'.

Her blush soon disappeared when she gave him an angry pout. "Hey! I'm not weird!"

A small smirk appeared on his lips, which pissed her off. "That's what you think."

Her nerve snapped. With one hard push, she shoved the dragon slayer off her bed and onto the wooden floor. Satisfied with the loud 'thud' that accompanied him when he landed; she pulled herself out of bed. She grabbed a towel and reached for the bathroom door-handle when a hand grabbed her ankle. She turned to see Natsu on all fours, one hand gripping the top of her foot while the other was planted on the floor. Her eyes caught his and she felt a shiver run down her spine. Revenge glinted in his eyes. "Natsu do-!" Too late. He yanked her leg towards him and she let out a high pitched squeal. She landed face-flat on the hard floor with a loud _Smack! _The dragon-slayer couldn't even try to hold his laughter in.

Now happy he'd had his revenge, he threw himself back onto her bed and fell asleep with a satisfied sigh.

Lucy was still in a bad mood when the duo arrived at the guild that afternoon.

She stormed away from the dragon-slayer the minute they walked through the double doors to go talk to Mira. The barmaid had already noticed that she wasn't happy and had her favourite drink, mango lemonade, ready for her when she sat down on the stool at the bar with an irritated sigh.

"My, my. Are you alright, Lucy? You don't seem happy at all." The ex S-Class wizard gave he r a slightly concerned look and angry blonde couldn't help but smile.

"Yes, Mira I'm fine." She nodded. "Natsu's just getting on my nerves again."

The barmaid let out a giggle. "Oh right, what has he done now?"

"It just annoys me how he thinks it's okay to sleep in my bed, then complains I'm being just being moody when I push him out!" The mage let out another groan then, rather forcefully, rested her forehead on the counter.

Mira smiled. "Oh Lucy, you know he doesn't really understand the whole 'girl' thing." She put down the glass she was cleaning and propped her head up with her elbows on the bar across from the blonde mage. "He just see's everyone as a friend, so he doesn't really understand when you get annoyed for him being in your bed. You must have figured out by now how dense he is!" She let out another chuckle and went back to cleaning her glass.

"I know, but he is just so annoying sometimes!" It came out a lot louder than she had planned.

"Who's so annoying sometimes?"

She tensed when she heard the voice from behind her. She turned around to see a curious dragon-slayer only inches away from her face.

"N-Natsu?! Ha-ha.. Ha.. W-What do you mean? I never said anyone was annoying!"

He noticed her fake smile by a long shot, but didn't let on. He just gave her a questioning look.

"W-What are you looking at me like that for?" She nudged away from him in her seat slightly.

He looked at her for another few seconds then just shrugged. "I guess I was trying to figure out why you're so weird."

The blonde mage's fist clenched, her nails almost digging into her skin. "I'm not weird! Why do you keep saying that?!"

He let out a chuckle then placed a warm hand on her shoulder, giving her his signature smile.

Her angry expression soon faded, being replaced by a soft smile and a giggle. "Alright, alright!" Giving him a small jab in the ribs with her elbow, she continued; "Whatever, I need money for rent so were going on a job!"

The dragon-slayers face perked up at this, showing a toothy grin. "Yay! Happy, we're going on a job!" He called to the little blue exceed across the bar, who was trying to get a certain white exceed to accept his fish, but to no avail.

"Eh?! But she was just about to take my fish!" The blue cat cried, flying over to the dragon-slayer and celestial mage.

"Face it, Happy." Lucy started. "She's just not into you."

"What a pain! Did you have to pick this one out of all the jobs on the whole board?!" The salamander complained. Again. His hands clasped behind his head, following the blonde mage with a depressed exceed in tow.

Back at the guild, Natsu had said that Lucy could pick the mission, since it was her rent, not quite realising that she was going to pick one that involved them doing something he really despised.

Going on a train.

'_I hate trains.' _He thought to himself as Lucy dragged them to the station.

"Yes, I did! Now stop complaining, you're almost as bad as happy going on about Charle! This mission will be a piece of cake!"

Honestly, he didn't even understand the mission. He had read it over when Lucy picked it out but he couldn't help but feel like it was strange. He lifted the request sheet to his face again, scanning it carefully. It read;

_PLEASE READ! Travel to the forest on the outskirts of Fiore and meet me there. I need help tracking down an insect. More information will be issued when we meet. Reward: 70,000 jewels._

He knew why Lucy chose it, because it was her exact rent, but he couldn't help but feel like it was strange. _'An insect? The outskirts of Fiore? That's a very rural place to be looking for a bug.'_

His thoughts were interrupted by a scream coming from Lucy. His head snapped up immediately and his hand went ablaze. "Lucy?!" He looked to where she was standing but she wasn't in danger, she was smiling and giving lovey-dovey eyes to this brown-haired boy. '_Typical'._ He relaxed from his stance and the flames disappeared, slowly walking up behind Lucy he rolled his eyes at how she always went like this around boys she thought were 'cute' or 'hot'.

_'What the hell does she see in these guys? There just nerds.'_

Then he noticed that this boy had a really weird smell coming from him.

'_What is that? I've smelt it before, I know I have.' _He couldn't put his finger on it, but his question was soon answered.

"Natsu, that guy Lucy is talking to smells like blood." The blue exceed's face was full of alarm when he came up behind Natsu and tapped him on the shoulder.

'_That's what it is!' _"Yeah, you're right Happy." He looked the boy up and down, examining him with narrow eyes.

Lucy had finally stopped talking to him and turned back to her partner when the dragon-slayer and flying blue cat came up to her. "Who's he?" He said with a grunt. The blonde mage frowned a little but then started telling them about how he was a writer and a poet and how he was traveling the world and other things that the salamander couldn't really care any less about. But then she came out with; "And we've made dinner reservations for tonight!" That's when he listened.

"You are not going out to dinner with him, Luce." He said with firm, but slightly worried eyes.

"Excuse me?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't remember it being your decision?"

"But he smells.." He stopped himself. He didn't want to worry her by saying he smelt like blood. "H-He just smells weird."

The blonde-mage let out an irritated sigh. "You say that about everyone! Every boy I meet and have some sort of chance with you come out with things like this!"

"Luce, I'm just wor-!" He was cut off by Lucy, now slightly raising her voice in his face. "You always worry about me! Do you think I'm that weak?! That I can't look after myself?! I'm stronger than you think, Natsu!"

"I know your strong Luce, I wasn't saying that! I just think tha-!" He was once again interrupted but this time, by a hand swiping the air in front of him. Lucy's face was dark and looking at the him with her right hand in front of the dragon-slayers face silencing him.

"I don't need you to protect me all the time, Natsu!"

Her words hit him like a slap. "What..?" She looked back up at him, aggravation in her once soft, brown eyes.

"Go home. I'm doing this mission by myself." She spun on her heel and ran towards the train station.

"Luce! Wait!" The salamander called after her but the blonde mage was already out of sight. "Dammit." He sighed. "What the hell just happened?" He looked over his shoulder to flying cat whose bottom lip was sticking out and quivering.

"Come on, might as well go back to the guild."

As the celestial mage was boarding the train, she kept muttering about how annoying Natsu was.

'_Telling me I can't go on a date? Who does he think he is?! Okay, he does have a good nose but that's just too far to insist that he 'smells weird' Ugh! He is such an idiot. Thinking I need protected all the time!'_

She made her way to the booth and couldn't help but feel lonely when she sat down by herself. '_Maybe I was a little mean to him; it isn't the same without that idiot. I'll apologize when I get back to the guild and make him dinner.' _She decided then that she wasn't going to go out with that sparkly-eyed boy, her friends were more important than that hot writer. _'Really, hot writer.' _She thought again, then with a sigh, she fell asleep against the window.

What the blonde mage didn't know was that a devilish pair of eyes were watching her very closely. Blood handing in the air around him.

"Lucy's still not back yet." The dragon-slayer grumbled with his face flat against the wooden bar of the guild. He had been sitting in that position with his arms slumped over the counter since Lucy had shouted at him. Which had only been an about an hour.

"Lucy's probably in trouble." He cried over and over again, gaining Mira's giggles in return. "You need to calm down Natsu, she'll be fine. Stop worrying so much." The barmaid replied, but truthfully she loved seeing him worry about the blonde-mage so much. Everyone in the guild new how much she wanted them to be together, she was just a hopeless romantic.

The guild was relatively quiet, for once. But when Erza and Gray burst through the doors returning from their mission, everyone couldn't help but moan. Now Gray was back, he was surely going to start a fight with Natsu and then Erza would get pissed and then the guild would be in its usual chaos. Nobody could be bothered with all that. But then something unexpected happened. Really, unexpected.

Gray marched up to the dragon-slayer, throwing the first insult (Which was normal). "What's up with you, Squinty eyes?"

"Just shut up, Droopy eyes." He retaliated. The ice-mage raised an eyebrow and smirked at him. "Oh? You wanna fight flame breath?" He sent a flying punch towards his cheek.

"No, I don't. So leave me alone."

This reply gained a few gasps from their fellow guild mates, but especially from the ice-mage who was now frozen to the spot looking down at his rival with a questioning look. "What?"

The fire-mage finally looked up at him. "I said I don't want to fight. So go away." Saying that, he slammed his head back onto the wooden bar, going back into the position he'd been sitting in for that past hour.

The ice-mage looked over to the barmaid. "What is wrong with him?" He glanced back to the dragon-slayer who was now letting out small sniffles and loud groans. The barmaid just giggled. "My my. He got into a fight with Lucy and she went on the mission by herself." A loud moan came from the lifeless salamander at remembering. "She might be trouble." He cried into the counter again.

She had been wandering around for hours. She was lost. Completely and utterly lost.

'_How am I lost? I followed the directions! It says right here; follow the path until you get to the cottage! THERE IS NO COTTAGE?!' _She screamed in her head, getting incredibly frustrated.

'_Right, calm down Luce. Calm down and use your head' _She relaxed and then stopped, cringing to herself. _'D-Did I just call myself, 'L-Luce'? When the hell did I start calling myself that?! That's so embarrassing!' _The lost mage let out a groan then started walking around aimlessly again. '_You know, this would have been a lot easier if you hadn't shouted at Natsu.' _She growled at the voice in her head but knew it was right. She was thinking about how to make it up to him when she heard rustling in the bush beside her. She froze in place, swivelling her body ever so slightly towards the noise, cautiously moving her hand towards her keys.

The bush rustled again then stopped. The earth stood completely still, Lucy's heart beat hamering in her chest.

'_Just an animal? Or a bird?' _She thought, trying to calm herself down. '_No. I can feel someones magic power, it's faint but i can sense it. But where..?'_

"Geheheh, I've got you now princess."

Right on que of the question in her head, her eyes followed the voice coming down above her. A black figure landed in front of her, a small knife in his hand. She couldn't see his whole face, but thanks to the light she could just see his mouth that was curled into a dark, twisted grin that made her shudder.

The hooded figure sensed the fear in her body and let out an empty chuckle. "Don't worry, princess. I'm only going to kill you."

He _lunged_ forward, when the small knife was just inches away from her side of her eye she snapped into action. Grabbing one of the keys off her belt, she yelled;

"Open! Gate of the golden bull! Taurus!"

There was a loud '**DING-DONG' **then a puff of yellow celestial spirit Taurus appeared, swinging his axe into the surprised cloaked figure's stomach and sending him flying off into a tree before turning back to Lucy and shouting; "Lucy's nice body! Moo!"

She sweatdropped. "Uh.. yeah, thanks Taurus! You can go back now!" The cow spirit disapeared and she grabbed Loke's key. Just incase. She looked over to were the guy that attacked her was laying and couln't help let out a small laugh. '_He's unconcious from just one hit_? _He better think twice about talking so big!' _Pleased with her victory she set off again, still trying to find the damn cottage.

But back in the peaceful town of Magnolia, a certain salamander was not so pleased.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?!" Was all that could be heard inside the walls of the guild. Natsu had givin up his position of being slumped over the bar and had pulled a chair over to sit right infront of the guild doors, ready to give Lucy a piece of his mind when she came back. _'Does she have any idea how worried I am?! She's been gone for hours! The mission shouldn't be this god-damn long!'_

Various guild members had tried to calm him down but he just ignored them, his eyes never leaving the front doors. A couple of people had came back from missions just too see the dragon-slayer sitting there. When the front doors opened, his face broke into a smile and he jumped up off the chair. "Lucy! Your b-!" His face fell when from behind the door came a slighty confused Gajeel and Levy. He sat back down on the chair and stared back at the door. Waiting. Hoping.

After her first opponent, the celestial mage had taken out many differant people. Some wanting money, some wanting to kidnapp her and others, like the first, saying that they were going to kill her. She took them all out easily, feeling pretty proud of herself.

_'See Natsu? I can look after myself!' _She glanced down at her watch and her eyes slowly widened, reading the time.

_'N-N-NINE O'CLOCK?! THAT CAN'T BE RIGHT! I GOT HERE AT MID-DAY! I COULDN'T HAVE POSSIBLE BEEN HERE FOR NINE HOURS! NATSU WILL BE FREAKING OUT! I HAVE TO_ BACK!'As fast as she could, she turned around and bolted in the direction she came from.

No one had approached the dragon-slayer in two hours. No one dared to. He sat deathly still, glaring at the guild doors as if trying to make them open, hoping they would show the celestial mage. They didn't.

Even though he was angry, he could't help the pained expression on his face. He kept blaming himself in his head over and over.

'_If I hadn't upset her, she would be here with me and I would know she was safe. Damnit Luce! Where are you?!'_

Erza and Gray had asked him why he wouldn't go look for her, but he couldn't answer. He didn't know. All he wanted right now was to know Lucy was safe and he wanted to go after her, but something was stopping him. He felt like if he went, Lucy's pride would be hurt. She would feel like she wasn't powerful enough. He didn't want that, but if she didn't walk through those doors soon, he was going to go crazy.

_'Luce.. Please come back..'_

"Finally!" The exausted blonde mage said as she reached the cliff, letting her know she was at the edge of the forest. It taken her another few hours to reach it so it was now almost eleven o'clock.

_'This is bad, Natsu will be worried sick about me being away for so long! He'll never let me out his sight again! Or.. Actually.. What if he doesn't care? I did tell him I didn't need him so he's probably just been sitting eating fish with happy all day. Not giving me a thought..'_

Once again, she was too busy thinking about the dragon-slayer that it took her a few seconds to register when a hand clamped down on her mouth while another held her arms behind her back. She struggled in their arms, she could tell they weren't very strong bug the more she struggled the weaker she felt.

_'What is going on? This person has almost no upperbody strength but I suddenly feel so drained! Wait, all my magic power is gone! This person, whoever they are, is taking my magic power out of me. H-Hold on, what is that?!'_

The mage let out a muffled scream as she saw the glinting metal of a syringe slowly coming towards her, her eyes were wide with terror as she watched it come closer and closer to her arm. She didn't know what to do, her movements were restrained and her magic was gone.

She cried out in pain as the needle was rammed into her arm, its contents being slowly pushed into her blood stream. She felt the sensation of the liquid flowing through her body, the tears that she had been holding back began to run own her cheek.

The hand that was tightly gripping her hands released her and the one on her face did the same. Her knees gave away from the complete loss of energy and she feel to the ground, panting heavily. She looked up, not quite expecting to see who was standing there with an empty syringe.

"Y-You!" Her breathing was raspy and quiet but she got the word out, glaring at the 'really hot' writer she met at the train station.

He didn't reply, he just returned her glare with a devilish smirk.

"What the hell did you put in me?" Her voice was slowly returning but her speach was still pretty hoarse.

He didn't reply at first, he looked like he was thinking whether to tell her or not.

"I might as well tell you, since you're going to die anyway. I put some strong sleeping medicine in you."

She looked at him with a confused look, not sure if he was kidding or not. "S-Sleeping..? But, you don't die if you get injected with sleeping medicine?"

He let out a snort, like she was the dumbest person on eath. "It's not the medicine that will kill you, its the fact that you will be sleeping when you falling into the deep river below you and drown."

She gave him another confused glance. _"Deep river? What is he..?" _Her whole body suddenly tensed, her eyes spreading in horror. She slowly shifted her body round, spotting exactly what she did not want to see. The cliff edge. The sound of rushing water became deafening in her ears as it splashed into the side of the sharp rocks.

"Goodbye, Lucy Heartfilia."

Everything that came after those words was a blur. She felt the blunt pain in her chest as he kicked her off the side of the cliff and then she was falling. The crashing water below rushing up to meet her. She knew that it was a long fall but everything was going in slow motion, her body felt weightless. She didn't scream, she didn't cry out for help, she just fell.

_'Wow.. I'm really going to die. I know i'm going to die yet I feel so.. calm.' _A single tear escaped, flying upwards when all she did was fall.

_'Natsu really isn't going to save me this time, huh?' _Another tear fell.

"I'm sorry, Natsu" The celestial mage said softly. She knew she only had about thirty seconds before she dropped into the river and disapeared forever.

"Apologie accepted."

Along with the voice that came out from no where, two arms wrapped around the blonde mage's falling body. One holding her waist tightly while the other held the back of her head, pulling her into their chest.

She looked up, just in time to see the salamader's pissed expression before they both plummeted head first into the water below.

_'Lucy.'_

_'Huh?' The blonde-mages soft brown eyes slowly opened, but she couldn't see anything._

_'Lucy.'_

_There it is again, that voice. It was so soft and warm. She looked around again, trying to find the souce, but all she could see was black. She was just floating in never ending darkness._

_'Lucy, can you hear me?' The voice called out._

_'Y-Yes! I can hear you..' the celestial made said into black that was surrounding her. _

_A soft hand was placed on her shoulder. She turned to see who it was, but wasn't prepared at all._

_'M-Mama..?' _

_The mage felt her eyes tear up, staring at the beautiful figure infront of her._

_Layla gave her a warm smile, making Lucy cry even more, then gave a sad nod._

_'Lucy, don't cry.'_

_'H-How could I not cry..?' She threw her arms around her mothers neck, sobbing into her hair._

_'This isn't the time for you to be here, Lucy. You still have a life left to live.' Her soft hand stroking her daughter's hair._

_'No! I want to say here with you!'_

_'Are time to be together again isn't now, you must live your life with your friends, who care and love you.' She held on to Lucy's shoulders an gently pushed her off her neck so she could look in her daughter's eyes, that were shining from the tears running down her face, her lip quivering uncontrollably._

_'I'm sorry, Lucy.' Her own eyes starting to shed tears. 'I love you with all my heart.'_

_There was a flash of light, then her mother was gone._

The celestial mage's eyes flickered open and to her surprise, she wasn't completely surrounded by black. A deep orange glow filled the sky as the sun started rising in the horizon, the birds were soaring above her chirping happily to themselves and her back was leaning against the base of a large tree covered in a blanket. She looked around, trying to remember what had happened. '_That guy I met at the train station tried to kill me and kicked me off the cliff.. then..' _She started to cry when she remembered meeting her mother, her words playing in her head over and over again.

'_I love you too mama.'_

She wiped her eyes, remembering her mother telling her not to cry.

_'Wait, Natsu. Natsu saved me, where is he? He saved me even though I said I didn't need saving.. He came after me..' _

She looked around for him, but her eyes quickly caught onto his erratic pink hair only a few feet away, his back facing her and his legs hanging over the river bank holding onto a long wooden stick. New tears formed in her eyes and she clutched the blanket he must have put around her. _'That idiot..'_

She grabbed onto the tree and slowly stood up. Her body ached all over and she winced a couple times before she managed to stand properly. Still tightly holding the blanket, she made her way over to him thinking about how she was going to say thank you and apologise. But the closer to him she got, the more nervous she became because she remembered his pissed expression.

So she sat down beside him without saying a word. She noticed he had a few scratches here and there but overall he looked fine.

Silence clung to both of them, he still looked really angry so the celestial mage decided not to say anything, she just sat there beside him, taking in her surroundings and looking at her reflection.

Finally, he spoke up. Not looking at her, he kept his eyes on the water.

"Are you happy?"

The question shocked her. What is that supposed to mean?

He slowly turned his head towards her, looking at her with not angry, but with big sad eyes.

"Are you happy? You tried to prove you were strong and look what happend. You almost died." His voice cracked slightly at the last part.

"Natsu.." She didn't know what to say. But he knew what to do. The dragon slayer turned to face her completely then gently grabbed her shoulders, pulling her into himself.

"You're such an idiot, Luce. Do you now how worried I was?" He gripped her tighter, wrapping his arms around her neck.

"B-But I told you-"

"I don't care what you tell me Luce, I'll always protect you."


End file.
